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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Sunday that the US “will do whatever it takes” to defend itself, days after a missile attack on an Iraqi military base used by coalition forces fueled tensions. between the United States and Iran on Iraqi soil.
Austin told ABC News that the United States is still in the process of “gathering intelligence information” on who was behind the 10 missile attack on the Ain Al-Asad military base in western Iraq on March 3.
No US elements were injured in the attack, but a US civilian contractor suffered a heart attack at the shelter and later died, according to the Pentagon.
Austin said Washington urges Iraqi authorities to proceed swiftly with the investigation to find out who was behind the attack, the fourth to target sites where US forces are deployed in recent weeks.
“The message we want to send to those who carry out attacks like this is: Expect us to do whatever it takes to defend ourselves,” Austin told the American News Network.
“We will strike at a time and place of our choosing if we find that this is what is needed,” he said.
Wednesday’s missile strike came five days after the United States’ response to previous attacks on military installations on the Syrian border, which the Pentagon says was used by an Iranian-backed Iraqi armed militia in connection with the missile strikes. .
Observers say Iran is using missile strikes as a way to pressure the United States, whose President Joe Biden is offering to revive the nuclear deal after his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018.
Biden previously announced that the United States “is in the process of determining who is responsible (for the attack) and will make decisions accordingly.”
When asked if Iran was told not to consider any further retaliatory response as escalation, Austin said: “I think Iran is fully capable of evaluating the attack and our activities, and will come to its own conclusions.”
“But what Iran must draw from this issue again is that we will defend our forces, and our response will be measured and proportionate. We hope that they will choose to do the right thing,” he said.
The Ain Al-Assad base uses Iraqi and foreign forces from the US-led international coalition to fight ISIS.
In January 2020, the tension between Iran and the United States reached its peak after the assassination of the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of the People’s Mobilization Authority, Abu Mahdi . Al-Muhandis, in a US raid in Baghdad.
Iran responded to the assassination by firing ballistic missiles at Ain Al-Assad and Erbil, causing dozens of casualties.
In the next ten months, dozens of rockets and improvised explosive devices struck Western diplomatic, military and security sites in various parts of Iraq, some of which resulted in deaths.
The frequency of attacks dropped dramatically in October after a truce was reached with militant groups, but they have accelerated in the past three weeks.
